Can the torrential downpour over North India happen again?

Brut India

The heavy rainfall in North India was caused by the same phenomenon that caused the Kedarnath cloudburst in 2013…

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00:00These logs were swept away in a flash flood in Himachal Pradesh

00:04This is a water canal in Kullu

00:07And this is a busy road in Gurugram

00:09Nearly 40 people have died in just 2 days of torrential downpour

00:14and flood-like situations in Northern India

00:22But what's going on?

00:23Is this just the monsoon coming in heavier than usual?

00:27Turns out, no

00:28The kind of rainfall North India experienced in early July 2023

00:33is a rare phenomena

00:35It's the interaction between the monsoon and the western disturbance

00:40So what exactly is the western disturbance?

00:43It is essentially a storm that forms over the Mediterranean

00:47But it is a low-pressure system which travels east

00:50through the Middle East and Iran

00:52The water level is so high that the entire body is wet

00:57Western disturbances are quite frequent

00:59and substantially affect the weather in North India

01:02They cause cloud cover, rainfall and even snowfall

01:06in the higher regions of the Himalayas

01:13The monsoons, on the other hand, are seasonal wind patterns

01:17across the Indian subcontinent that bring about the monsoon season

01:21when these two weather systems interacted with each other

01:25It led to heavy rainfall, with Delhi recording

01:29the highest single-day rainfall in July since 1982

01:41The IMD chief, Mrityunjay Mohapatra, said that the mountains

01:44get a lot of rain during such interactions

01:47because the winds hit the hills and rise, causing heavy precipitation

01:51A similar interaction happened in June of 2013 as well

01:55and it was one of the factors responsible for the floods in Uttarakhand

01:59and the cloudburst in Kedarnath

02:01It killed over 6,000 people

02:04The heavy rainfall in 2023 over states like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and Delhi

02:10subsided in about 4 days and the system shifted eastward

02:18While it is difficult to predict whether or not such interactions

02:21will be more frequent in the future

02:23when they do occur, they will bring about heavy rainfall and floods

02:27But that's not all

02:28Scientists are also seeing a shift in the monsoon pattern

02:32There are long periods of rainfall deficit

02:35and short bouts of heavy downpours

02:38Experts said that the capacity to hold moisture in the air

02:41increases with temperature

02:43and global warming has led to higher moisture levels in the air

02:46which in turn will lead to heavier rainfall

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